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Why two sauces are always better than one, according to Matt Preston

Mar 22, 2019

As the world’s most popular condiments vie for top ranking, Matt Preston, who relishes a good sauce, is inspired to find the next best zesty combos.

The US grip on cultural leadership is slipping and if you needed any greater proof, look no further than the wonderful world of condiments.

The once-mighty ketchup is being eclipsed, it seems, not only around the world, but in the US itself as the dominant condiment.

According to my in-depth research (20 minutes on Google), mayonnaise is the number-one condiment, followed by ketchup, and swiftly followed by soy sauce and Sriracha (aka rooster sauce).

The fastest-growing sector in the condiment world, hot sauces, is nowhere near as concentrated as that of ketchup. The big three hot sauces in the US combined only have about a third of the market.

This leads me to see huge potential for a new condiment contender so I’ve hit the test kitchen and come up with nine combo sauces that could be a next big thing. Mayonnaise and XO and mayo and chutney failed to hit the mark (too esoteric and too sweet, respectively), but, unsurprisingly, mayonnaise still features heavily in many of them.

Nobel-winning salsa golfForty-five years before he won the 1970 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discovering sugar nucleotides, Luis Federico Leloir mixed mayo and ketchup – to go with a prawn snack after a round of golf at Buenos Aires’ Mar del Plata club. It’s a great idea to re-create, but sadly last year Heinz launched its Mayochup, so that might be a bit of competition for my Golf Sauce.

KetchardThe combo of mustard and ketchup is perfect for hot dogs and burgers. Could also be sold as Matt’s Mustup.

Barbecue and mayo sauceThe Japanese love swiping dishes like octopus balls (takoyaki) with lines of mayo and brown sauce, but mixing barbecue sauce and mayo has a history that dates back to Alabama’s Big Bob Gibson, who put his ‘white sauce’ on the table when he opened his first barbecue restaurant in 1925. It mixed North Carolina mop sauce ingredients (like white vinegar, apple juice, onion powder, sugar, cayenne and a little horseradish) with mayo for a loose tangys dressing that’s different to the US’s more common ‘red’ barbecue sauces.

The NYC umami bombUgly Delicious creator and Momofuku founder, David Chang, is a savant when it comes to combo condi saucing. His finest work is mixing Japanese Kewpie mayo with a few drops of Maggi liquid seasoning for a riot of glutamates, but add a few drops of hickory liquid smoke and you please those smoked barbecue sauce fans, too. Let’s bottle it.

TabaschupI love the combo of tomato sauce and a hot sauce like Tabasco, but it’s nothing new. In 1911, Philadelphia’s Joseph Campbell Company ‘borrowed’ the name of the hit Louisiana pepper sauce for its Tabasco Ketchup, then Bull’s Head Tomato Catsup with Tabasco Sauce and Brooks Tabasco Flavor Catsup joined the fray. Tabasco’s lawyers eventually had the infringing products removed or renamed. This makes me worried that my version of this combo sauce might draw the same reaction.

Dynamite sauceIs this the ultimate hipster sauce? Just stir together three parts of Japanese Kewpie mayo and one part Sriracha and season with soy sauce and a squeeze of lime juice. Great on ribs or potato salad.

Wedgies’ sauceI invented this – though I might have been beaten to it by an adventurous six-year-old – specifically for wedges (both sweet potato and ordinary spud). It’s the alluring blend of mayo with sweet chilli sauce. The X-rated adult version features artisan-grown habaneros and a mix of sour cream and cream cheese instead of mayo.

Bridge’s goldie sauceHow about blending Sriracha with maple syrup for sweetness and soy sauce for saltiness? I like it, but I know that both Nigella Lawson and Gary Mehigan would challenge the concept of maple syrup being a condiment.

Brazil sauceThe Belgians have a knack for creating sauces to slather on their hot chip obsession. Their Brazil sauce mixes mayo with crushed pineapple and curry powder, while Samurai sauce, mayo with sambal olek (or harissa) and ketchup, deserves a wider audience than it would get if we bottled a local version.

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